We live in a nation where the popularity and importance of outdoor activities continues to grow. Recreational attributes help us attract and retain talented people in Arkansas. This means that protecting and strengthening these qualities is the key to future economic development.

I have long been frustrated with the US Forest Service and the US Army Corps of Engineers, agencies that have too often cited budgetary constraints in recent decades as an excuse to deemphasize the recreational aspects of their congressional mandated missions. Members of the Arkansas congressional delegation share my disappointment.

In August 2015, U.S. Representative French Hill of Little Rock wrote a letter to the head of the USFS asking for the restoration of Camp Ouachita, a former Girl Scout camp in Perry County. The camp, closed in 1979, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the only remaining Girl Scout camp in the country built during the Great Depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration.

The USFS did not bother to respond until November of that year. And the answer did not come even from the person to whom the letter was addressed. Instead, it came from a subordinate named Joe Mead, who at the time led a division called Recreation, Heritage and Volunteer Resources.

“While the Forest Service remains open to all viable business proposals related to the preservation of the historic setting and features of Camp Ouachita, it is currently not economically feasible to undertake costly efforts to restore additional structures,” Mead wrote.

Hill never gave up. He takes pride in the fact that Arkansas has the best state park system in the nation, thanks to the 1996 voter passage of Amendment 75 to the Arkansas Constitution. This amendment introduced a sales tax that provides needed revenue for park improvements and other purposes. Hill approached state officials to make this section of Ouachita National Forest part of Pinnacle Mountain State Park.

In the summer of 2021, it was announced that the State Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism will operate the Sylvia Lake Recreation Area. The state signed a real estate lease agreement with USFS. The lease includes Camp Ouachita, built 1936–1940. Ogden Hall and the staterooms were designed in the rustic style popular at the time.

Hill notes that Pinnacle Mountain employees have been asked for potential camping spots in the Ouachita National Forest for years.

Sylvia Lake was built in 1936-37 by the CCC. In 1937, the CCC also built a small recreational area at the south end of the 18-acre lake, which is 38 miles west of Little Rock. The Sylvia Lake Recreation Area now has a swimming beach, bathhouses, picnic areas, 14 campsites with water and electricity, eight primitive campsites, seven village cabins with bathrooms, and two group tent sites.

Hill, a ninth generation Arkansatian and lifelong outdoorsman, and I visit the recreation area. Molly Elders, site superintendent from the state, enthusiastically takes us on a walking tour.

Girl Scouts was founded in Georgia in 1912 by Juliet Gordon Lowe. The organization grew rapidly. The first Girl Scout camp was founded in New York in 1922. By the end of the 1930s, there were nearly 1,000 Girl Scout camps throughout the country. The first Girl Scout troop in Arkansas was organized in 1927. Beginning in 1928, Little Rock Borough Girl Scout Council troops took turns using Camp Quapaw, a Boy Scout camp in Saline County.

In 1936, Sue Worten Ogden, president of the council, received permission from the USFS to establish a camp in the Ouachita National Forest on a narrow creek in Perry County. It was at a place where a stream flows through a deep rocky ravine known as the Narrow. The CCC decided to build the Narrow Creek Dam there. The lake formed by the dam was named Lake Sylvia on Ogden’s recommendation. Ogden had heard a speech about the perfect Girl Scout called “Who is Sylvia? What is she?

The public campsite was on the south side of the lake. Meanwhile, on the north side, the WPA began work on the Ouachita camp. It was built in stages. Girl Scouts paid for furniture, equipment, supplies, and some labor. The WPA provided most of the workforce.

Noted Little Rock architectural firm Thompson Sanders & Ginocchio designed the buildings, with Frank Ginocchio as project architect. The buildings were built of field stone and cypress logs. There were gabled roofs covered with cypress tiles and an open frame of hewn logs. The common area included a large Ogden hall, an infirmary, and outbuildings. The common area was surrounded by four divisions grouped by age. The divisions were named Lake View, Tall Timber, Echo Valley, and Cliff Top.

A fifth block across the lake was added in 1959 and named Atihkauo. It had no huts and offered primitive camping for older girls who got there by canoe.

According to the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, “Camp Ouachita drew Girl Scouts from all over Arkansas and even neighboring states. There were two-week camp classes, one-week classes, and even weekend camps. Activities varied by age and skill level. different age groups and interest orientations. Some units focused on water sports such as canoeing and sailing. Others honed mountaineering and camping skills. Still others taught life-saving skills or trained future camp counselors.

“The basis for the activities of each group was a separate house, where they could conduct conversations about nature, duty tasks, do arts and crafts or play on rainy days. Here they received mail from home and gathered by the fireplace on cold evenings. There was no electricity. in the camp until 1950, and then it simply served as a large hall, infirmary, glacier and caretaker’s house. Vacationers moved in the dark with a candle, a torch or a flashlight.

The girls were paired up and used the friend system. The water in the showers was cold and came straight from the lake. The bathing area had diving boards that floated on rafts in deep water. Inexperienced swimmers used two shallow swim beds that were surrounded by a wall topped with a catwalk.

Everyone gathered at Ogden Hall for dinners and events such as religious services and talent shows. The girls sat for eight at the table while eating.

By the 1970s, health regulations prohibited the use of untreated water from the lake. The 1978 summer camp was the last since Girl Scouts could not afford a modern water system. The USFS largely ignored the site.

From 1982 to 1986, other organizations were allowed to demolish buildings and dispose of the stones. Demolition was only halted when the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program announced that the camp was eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

In the 1990s, limited work was done on the caretaker’s house and on the roof of Ogden Hall. From 2001 to 2007, Ogden Hall was refurbished in stages along with the cabins and lake view block bath.

“One of my favorite parts of working in this park so far has been the stories that have come out of it,” says Elders. “Hundreds of girls have lived in these huts over the years. I like listening to their stories. We are trying to collect them. Even people who were not in the camp come here and want to take part.”

The Sylvia Lake Recreation Area is part of Hill’s dream of an outdoor entertainment corridor stretching from Little Rock to the depths of the Ouachita National Forest. There are two access trails from Sylvia Lake to the Ouachita National Recreation Trail, a hiking trail that spans 177 miles in Arkansas and 46 miles in Oklahoma.

“Good things can happen when federal, state and local governments work together towards a common goal,” he says. “We must expand and improve Natural State’s outdoor resources for all Arkansans to enjoy.”

Rex Nelson is senior editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Content Source